Charlie Brown Christmas

We were a bit pathetic this year with the Christmas Spirit...or maybe just Christmas organization. I threw out my artifical tree last year in hopes to start getting a real tree but what of course happens we wait for the last minute and couldn't find a Christmas tree lot. Until...it was Christmas Eve and we were up in Park City at Paul's dads house celebrating together. They hadn't decorated their freshly cut tree so they offered their tree to us but I only wanted a mini one for Logan so we cut the top 3 feet off of it and brought it home. Paul configured a stand for it, decorated with ribbon and lights and placed a angel Moroni statue on top-ta da we had a tree. We stayed up late wrapping presents for Logan- he really didn't need any more toys but he finally got the concept of opening presents and he loves it. So I ordered a bunch of his favorite Disney Cars so he could open an assortment of boxes. I just had a video of Christmas day so you just get to see a picture of Logan with the tree the day after-its the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas tree (we even took off the lights ba humbug).

Typically we leave town for Christmas but because this month was so crazy we figured to stay put. And we were glad we did. We spent Christmas Eve with Paul's dad and family, did our own thing Christmas morning, did Christmas lunch with my mom and mike and Christmas dinner with Paul's mom and family. So New Years resolution: I am going to start my preparations earlier next year-oh wait thats what I say every year.

Viva Las Vegas!!!

So we were crazy and went to the BYU vs. UCLA game in 40 degree weather. Who would think Vegas got that cold? (We could not consume enough hot chocolate) It was a tough game to watch- BYU was at their finest :) after a few mistakes we were worried. But some how they blocked that final kick and redeemed themselves-thank goodness. The rest of the trip was fun with good food IN-N-Out all the way!!! It is seriously the greatest- we ate there at least 2 or 3 times within 3 days-you have to order animal style its the only way to go. We had a good time...Go Cougars!

The Culprit

The electronic problems with one of cranes kept us in New Mexico a bit longer than expected. So we were there on Paul's 31st birthday with no cake or presents :( Logan was a good sport he hung out in the truck with mommy because everyday we thought we were leaving so we packed up all our items every morning and went to the power plant for the okay to leave (it didn't happen until Friday night).

Logan loved the hotel we stayed in because all the appliances were at his level-the fridge and microwave. He loved putting all his toys in the microwave for some strange reason and he never pushed the buttons-okay once there was a dial in one of the rooms and he put a can of juice in it!!! Paul shut it down before anything happened. Logan I think enjoyed the trip the most 24 hours a day with both mommy and daddy.

Caramel Nut French Toast

1 c light brown sugar
1/2 c butter
2 T light corn syrup
12 slices honey white bread (or use Kneaders)
3/4 c raisins (I like to use golden)
1 c chopped nuts
6 large eggs
1/2 c milk
2 t grated lemon rind
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 c whipping cream
1/4 c powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan; cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves.

Pour brown sugar mixture into an ungreased 13x9 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 bread slices in brown sugar mixture, cutting slices as necessary to fit in dish. Sprinkle raisins and 3/4 c pecans evenly over bread. Top w/remaining bread slices.

Whisk together eggs, next 4 ingredients, and 1 cup of whipping cream. Pour egg mixture over bread slices in baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 40 mins or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean.

Drizzle with maple syrup and remaining chopped nuts-and ENJOY!!!

BBQ Pork Ribs

Sauce:
1/4 c. chopped onions
3T worchestershire sauce
2T Vinegar
1/8 t garlic powder (or clove of garlic)
dash red pepper
dash of chili powder
1/2 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. ketcup

(I typically double this recipe because I like to have extra sauce)

Heat in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add 1 T flour to thicken. Pour on meat and bake @300 to 325 for 2-3 hours.

Pork: I use boneless country style ribs-lately I have been using boneless shoulder and its good!!!

Herriman or BUST

So we left Sunday the 9th to go to New Mexico so Paul could help with some technical difficulties with one of our cranes and...we are still here 5 days later. I am definitly learning how to get around in Farmington, New Mexico. It is a bit of a shock to me because I have never seen so many Native Americans-in California or Utah- it is a little different being a minority. (I keep hoping to spot Jacob-heheheh if you catch my drift). Logan and I were sitting in a hamburger joint the other day and he kept saying "He Haw" (his donkey impression) but it kept coming out as "Ye Ha" kinda like a cowboy and then I thought this was a bit weird my little white boy with his typical mohawk (which orginates from the Indians) was running around saying "Ye Ha" and suddenly I was hoping no one was being offended by these random things.

P.s. the picture of Logan is from Dec 06 the hair hasn't changed

Flashback Jazz Birthday '06

I thought it would be fun to flashback to the other party in '06.

The carwash and crane cakes were pretty cool.

4th Annual Jazz Birthday Bash

To celebrate his birthday Paul started a tradition 4 years ago by inviting his close buddies from high school to a Utah Jazz Game. (It started because we would buy a car from Larry H Miller and get 10 free Jazz tickets.) In 2004 we went to Z-Tejas for dinner and then went to the game. In 2005 Paul gave his tickets to his friends and stayed home because he was still laid up from his accident. But he was thrilled to carry on the tradition. Then in 2006 we decided to celebrate both Paul (Dec 10th) and Corey Bruse's (Nov 30th) birthday at the same time-so the party grew a bit. We now get the top boxes at the Jazz game and they cater with dinner and all-its a blast!!!

Logan's 2!!!

November 25th was Logan's 2nd Birthday and all he wanted was Disney's Cars. So we got him a Cars cake and he literally drove the car off. Grandma Cher Cher got Logan the Cars comforter set and he jumped up and down shouting "Cars, Cars." My mom got him some cute clothes that are in the top picture of the blog.

Thankgiving at the Dunes

We had a great time this Thanksgiving!!! We headed southwest and went to the sand dunes-Logan and I's first time ever. We have a membership to Toyshare so were took some dune machines and a motorhome for the big adventure. It was a bit cold so I was thrilled for the heater and plumbing and Logan was thrilled to have his DVD player:). I had to layer and layer Logan and his largest jacket I could find was his Halloween costume so YUP he was a zebra out on the dunes w/goggles and all. Logan absolutely loves 4 wheelers but Grandpa brought a Rino which is like a zupped up golf cart-I strapped his carseat in and off we went.

For our Thanksgiving dinner Grandpa Dave deep fried the turkey and it was good!!! We all brought dinner items and had a full blown dinner. Good Times.

Bella has been casted!!!

So I am one of those crazed fans of the Twilight Series. Paul and I went to the District the other night and saw Dan in Real Life (it was great) and I passed by a poster that was titled something Bella and I only thought SWEET. I knew they were making a movie I just didn't know how quick. Supposivly they have not casted Edward (can't wait to see who they choose) but they did cast Kristen Stewart as Bella. They said they'll start filming in Feb-can't wait.

Carmel Apples...Yummy

I'm Enrichment Leader for our Ward and I love it!!! We just had our November Enrichment and we had a Nordstrom personal shopper come and she gave us lessons on how to dress for our body type and she also gave advice on upcoming fashions. It was a nice Enrichment because the speaker took up most of the time so I focused my efforts on refreshments...thats were the carmel apples come into play. I tried a few recipes but all the carmel wanted to come off so I revamped my plan and unwrapped over 300 carmels. My friend Susie and I stayed up pretty late and dipped the apples into the carmel. The next day we dipped them into chocolate and then into different toppings-oreo, toffee, peanuts and reeses peanutbuttercups (we did about 45 of them).

Paul was in charge of watching Logan that night so he ordered Logan's most favorite thing CHEESE PIZZA. Before I left I had to get a picture of Logan 2 handing it!!!

HaPpy HaLLoWeeN

Grandma Cheryl got Logan his adoreable Zebra costume- I love the padded tummy and the little tail. Logan did so good going to the first few houses he even said "tick or teat" no R's yet, a few houses had some scary decorations so Logan would no longer walk to them he wanted to be held. So we went to get some goodies from Grandma Christie up the street and then we headed home. Caden Brooksby his twin zebra came over so we couldn't resist getting a picture of the two-they even had matching candy bags.

Last minute Pumpkin Patch

So we should have gotten pumpkins earlier because there are not many to choose from a few days before HallOwEen. Although Logan still loved it and had fun with his buddy Talyn (Corey and Rachelle's son).

Pumpkin Festival

We took Logan to Thanksgiving Point's Pumpkin Festival and he went crazy. They had giant things to jump on, mazes, animals and rides. His favorite thing was the pig races- he got so excited when they started running around.

I can SEE!!!

So last Thursday I went into the eye doctor and 12 minutes later my vision was fixed. I can not believe how amazing and advanced technology has become. I got glasses in 6th grade to help with seeing the board and such and my eyes didn't get much worse until I hit college. So for Mother's Day a year a half ago Paul gave me the Lasik "coupon" (meaning go and get it done) and of course I got so busy I put if off. Until now...I went in on Tuesday for a consultation and Thursday I got my eyes fixed. They gave me numbing drops, had me look at a light, my vision went black, they created a flap on the front of my eye, flattened my cornea and then they were done. I am so thrilled. I went to Davis Vision Center in South Jordan-Dr. Davis has done over 18,000 procedures, see if you can follow this...he does 8 to 20 procedures each Thursday each one taking 10-15 minutes, at $2,000 to $5,000 a procedure-yeah I would recommend becoming an eye doctor.

Nite out with the Girls

Whats better than eating, chatting and watching dance productions with your girlfriends...not much. It was a fun evening. The Odessey dance group does such an amazing job in every production they put on-we saw Thriller and it is so well done. I walked away missing dance more than ever and am so inspired to take a class. Rachelle, Teigan and I went together and ran into Rania-too fun!

The Jazz are Back

I can not believe its pre-season already-it snuck up on us. So we thought it would be a great time to see if Logan can sit through a basketball game...and the answer would be "no." He would rather hang out in the souvenir shops and throw basketballs around. We have season tickets with our friends Corey and Rachelle Bruse-its a blast. And our old next door neighbors the Monsens are just one section over from us-so I brought Logan over and he was entertained for a few minutes.

So the highlight of the game was not on the court but rather in my section. Logan started going up the stairs (where Paul was) and went I to grab him and my shoe got caught and I fell over a chair, the chair unfolded, I rolled off the chair into the aisle and I seemed to keep going in slow mo. I totally biffed it! and I have a huge bruise to prove it.

A San Francisco Treat

Back in June we had received 4 SF Giants tickets from a company we do work with so we had planned to meet up with Todd and Britt in San Fran. The Giants were going to be playing the San Diego Padres so we knew Todd and Britt would be game. But we had never planned on having so many vacations between June and September so by the time we got to San Francisco we were vactioned out. But we still had a great time doing the tourist-ee things the first few days...Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square (Logan loved the disney store), Fisherman's Warf, Ghardelli Square, MaMa's, the curvey street, we rode the BART and went to the Giants game where Todd caught a foul ball and the Padres won in the last inning. I even got to meet up with Meagan Becker one of my buds from Freshmen year at BYU and her adoreable daughter Ella. The last few days were during the work week so Paul and I got stuck on our phones again. Sorry Todd and Britt!!! We still loved hanging out with you.

We Moved in April!!!

We moved a whole 3 streets over.

I cut off the other half of the house but at

least you can see the waterfall.

Pan-Sauteed Chicken Breasts w/Mango Cucumber Salsa

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. grated lime zest
4 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1 tsp. olive oil
1 large mango, diced
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
2 Tbs. lime juice
pinch ground red pepper
1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over med heat. Place Chix in a shallow dish and sprinkle with 1 tsp. of the salt, then with 2 tsp. lime zest and 2 Tbs. of the cilantro, pressing to make zest and cilantro adhere. Add olive oil to skillet; add chix and cook, turning occasionally, until juices run clear, 12 minutes.
2. Meanwhile gently stir together mango, cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno, scallion, lime juice, ground red pepper, and remaining salt, lime zest, and cilantro in a small bowl. Serve salsa with chix. Makes 4 servings.
Each Serving: 236 cal., 5 g fat, 35 g protein, 11 g carb.Mangos are not cheap right now but this dish is so easy and tastes so good!!! (I forgot the scallion when I made it-oh well)

The Booze Cruise

For Labor Day weekend Paul's mom Cheryl and stepdad Dave treated us with our annual family trip this time on a cruise to Ensenada. The company was fun and entertaining!!! We got to lay out, dance, shop in Ensenada with all the funny vendors and eat lots of food. But it started off with Paul and I on the phones for work every moment we had reception (it was a work day). Later on when we got out to sea we received our freedom. We later realized it was a California locals cruise-where a majority of the people just drank and wore swimsuits they really shouldn't wear. Good Times:) pictures: Airplane ride, Paul's two cute sisters and a view of the shopping in Ensenda

7th Anniversary

Paul and I usually go to Logan, UT for our Anniversary (August 19th)-we like to go see our old stomping grounds at Utah State University. So the first day we check out the old campus, get new hoodies and eat at the "hub" and get Marvin'Joes. We stay at the Anniversary Inn and get our breakfast in bed. The next day we had the opportunity to go to the Logan Temple and then we started missing our little boy. So we called up Grandma Cheryl and she guessed exactly what we were thinkning so she brought Logan up to join us during our last night. So much for a get away.

Detroit Michigan

Instead of a pen pal, Paul had a cell pal-Brian from Michigan. They talked nearly every other day about cranes for a year and had never met. We decided it was about time they meet so we had it arranged and flew out in August. It was like going on a blind date...but Brian, his wife Angie and their 2 kids (get this LOGAN-6 and Ella Rae-3) were so similar to us!!! We hit it off and had a blast. Brian took us to Angie's parents home where they live on a lake and we went wave running, tubing, BBQing and just plain relaxing. While Brian showed Paul around Detroit, Angie and I did what girls do...SHOP. We are now planning for them to come out to Utah for the first time.

My sister had her 1st kid!!!

My sister pulled it off and had her little boy on 07-07-07

-way cool birthday. Brittany and Todd named their 6lb 3 oz little boy Beckham Bradly Gharring. He was so tiny they needed Logan's preemie clothes. I was lucky enough to go down to San Diego 2 weeks later to visit my new nephew. Beckham looks like a little bunny in his carseat and ignore the pink bumper its a borrowed item not a fashion statement.